LEARN THE META; Town Layout

This guide will lead you through a sample town layout, pointing out the do's and don'ts of where to place your buildings during the Dark, Feudal, Castle, & Imperial Age. Yes, these may seem like very marginal things but they can often save you from early rushes, unproductive economies, etc...

Introduction

Greetings Furor_Teutonicus here, leader of the AOE 2 DE FavsT Clan, you can join our discord server to play and chat with us here; https://discord.gg/h3E52Bz I'm back once again this time we are learning the meta, not breaking it.



This guide will lead you through a sample town layout, pointing out the do's and don'ts of where to place your buildings during the Dark, Feudal, Castle, & Imperial Age. Yes, these may seem like very marginal things but they can often save you from early rushes, unproductive economies, etc...

What NOT To Do

First, the things not to do. Below is a series screenshots which show a player's town. The shots point out common errors and places where productivity is reduced.

Take notice of where your Town Center is placed when you start the game and place your buildings accordingly, putting certain buildings in front of your TC which face the enemy when possible, and certain ones behind, which is explained later on.

House Placement


First, the house closest to the TC takes up tiles that could have been used for a farm. Be sure to build your houses far enough away from your TC that you can fit farms directly beside the TC.

Second, with your houses clumped in one area, the LOS (line of sight) advantage you gain from that is almost none. Your odds of catching enemy villagers or units walking by your Houses is greatly reduced because they're all in one place.

Third, any LOS benefit is only gained behind the TC. Notice where the enemy is, directly northeast of the TC. Wouldn't it be more logical to have those houses out on the east side of your TC instead of the west where your LOS is less important?

Fourth, the way they are built now is not optimal for using them as part of a potential wall as the game progresses.

Gx_Xiphoid recalled a game played where a Franks player Castled early, and was going to try to plop a castle right in his backyard. He had placed houses in a formation around his TC, and with their LOS, aided by Town Watch, Xiphoid caught the Villagers and his efforts were thwarted. If he had gotten the Castle up, it would have been rough times as it came around sixteen minutes and was in range of his Town Center and Farmers. Early detection from effective LOS.



Lumbercamps


The player has placed the lumber mill three or four tiles away from the forest. This is a big no no. The farther your vills have to walk, the less productive they are. It has been debatable whether or not to place the lumber mill directly beside the forest or one tile away, either works, but three or four tiles away is unacceptable.

Many flushers (feudal archer rushers) will tower the player's wood and then bring in their archers. Having no LOS in the area could cost you if you get flushed. Always try to have decent LOS near your wood, gold, and TC. Use your Houses as part of your walls like in the image below.



The positioning of the Wall and House in the above image also better protect the woodline to allow Villagers to continue gathering resources even if Archers make their way to that area as the Wall is far enough away from the Lumbercamp that Feudal Age Archers should not be able to reach the Lumberjacks.


Mining Camps and Quickwalling



The player's placement of the mining camp is bad. This placement will result in Villagers bumping into each other and inefficiency. It is also hard to defend this gold mine from Men at Arms and Scouts. The following image below is a better manner in which to build a mine on this particular gold pile, it allows efficiency as the game progresses and more Gold Miners are added to the pile while keeping these Villagers safe in the early game by allowing an easy wall.




Farm Placement



The player has poor farm placement, one can't be placed next to the TC because there's a house in the way. Almost ALWAYS build your farms directly beside the TC (zero tiles away) to start. Doing this increases efficiency and keeps the Farmers safe allowing them to quickly garrison in the TC if the need arises.





The player has placed his mill three or four tiles away from the resource. Again, the farther the villagers have to walk, the less efficient they are. Better placement of the mill would have been closer to the berries.





Lack of Defenses and Poor Line of Sight



The last shot displays the vulnerability of this player to enemy attack on the side facing the enemy. A barracks, archery range, TC, castle, or anything could be waiting in this unseen territory.

What SHOULD Be Done

House Placement



The houses are placed in somewhat of a circle on the edge of the Town Center's LOS. It might not look like much now, but when the player hits feudal and with town watch you'll see a drastic difference, which is shown later on in the article. Notice that the houses are placed on the side the enemy would most likely be coming from.


The Role of Town Watch

Before town watch is researched.



After Town Watch is researched.



There's a big difference and your chances of catching that enemy Castle go up ten-fold. Not every player will agree with me, but I get Town Watch every game I play. Town Watch is an often overlooked technology, it has its uses and is key in detecting forward buildings and units.

Notice the above buildings are used as a wall further protecting the base and important resource locations.

The Role of Castles

Before, you can see from the Circles how the Castles sphere of influence could radiate out helping protect this town from being easily raided and giving the Villagers somewhere to garrison. Hills are important areas of the map and places you should consider building Castles if they are in important areas of the map such as inside your base or directly outside of it so that the enemy can not use that territory to advance from.



After, Notice how both Castles were built on the hill, Castles do bonus damage when on a hill and take less damage as well.



Another important role Castles can play is to protect trade routes and Markets.

Conclusion

With good Line of Sight management around your town, you can be more confident in preventing any major problems before they arise.

Expand as much as possible, control the map. You won't be doing that by clumping your houses and buildings together for the entirety of the match.

Think about how many times you've said "*$@#, there's a castle shooting my #$% sixteen minutes into the game!" Good Line of Sight and domestic scouting may solve that. Research Town Watch next time you play and watch it save your town. Town Watch may not be instrumental in the first game you decide to research it, but, some game down the road it will pay for its self many times over.

If you have any questions regarding this guide or are just looking for people to play and chat with join the FavsT Clan discord server; https://discord.gg/h3E52Bz

Acknowledgements & References

This is an updated, expanded, & edited version of the following guide written circa 1999-2000 by Gx_Xiphoid, all screenshots had to be replaced because they no longer exist, the guide was updated to better fit the current meta while also now including the Castle & Imperial Ages. Edited for brevity.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030829031937/http://www.planetageofmythology.com/aok/strategy/articles/town_layout/

Further Study

Other Strategy Guides by this Author;

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2072860123

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2052126517

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001783528

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2005456265

[Cake]

been playing this game since I was a kid, and I didn't know castles took less damage overall when placed on a hill -- thank you!

[Daynen Drakeson]

Been placing my mills/mining camps wrong, now that I think about it...

[rubyjuno]

Thanks for that, I've been playing a long time and knew most of it but there were still a couple of new things for an oldie like me to learn!

[TheGoreas]

niceee

[Evangelions]

Thank you!

[LoGicS521]

cool

[Starwolf]

I would also add the houses and some of your first/less important buildings such as barracks and archery range/ stables should be placed as a defensive grid in the direction your enemy will most likely come from. Create choke points easy to wall up and defend from, dont forgot offense is the best defense have a counter force ready to chase off the attack. Keep research buildings and the market too the back of your base but still place as a defensive grid for those pesky light cav and raids. Buildings not only create choke points and a hit point buffer but also force your opponent to micro his forces more giving you the advantage on a defense. Its the little things that lead to victory in an equal match up.

[Chiqui]

Super guide thanks

[DMg Halt]

You obviously put a lot of thought into making this guide and I think it's great for teaching about situational awareness. In my 15+ years of playing this game, I learned most of these things through trial and error. It's great to see it broken down and easy to understand for newer players.

[Ulysse]

Great guide